The present invention generally relates to a computer system configured from a storage system, a host device and a management computer, and more particularly, to the management of storage capacity in a storage system by a management computer.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-037602 discloses a storage device which comprises a disk volume for storing data, and which is provided with a volume creation function. The volume creation function references a volume ID, a capacity and a characteristic to be met by a logical volume inputted via a logical volume creation screen by an administrator, and allocates to a host computer a logical volume that satisfies the inputted capacity and characteristic.
As one method for efficiently managing the SAN environment which is becoming larger in scale and more complex, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-250327 discloses a hierarchical management method, which makes it possible for the user to allocate an appropriate volume so as to satisfy a host device-required condition by defining a volume hierarchy in accordance with volume attributes (high performance/high cost, low performance/low cost) and implementing a migration in accordance with a data life cycle.
According to this technology, it is possible to operate a storage system on the basis of a predetermined policy without the user having to directly manage individual volume attributes at volume provisioning and migration.